Chapter 214 Tea Party
On May 18th, Wang Jian, the pacification envoy along the Hebei border, reported: "According to the imperial edict, marriages with the people who provide tribute to the two cities are prohibited. I believe Xiongzhou is located on the border, north of the Yi River, and the Juma River to the north of the state is the boundary with the enemy."
The two counties of Guixin and Rongcheng have over 16,900 households, all located south of Juma River, and are under the jurisdiction of this dynasty. Since the beginning of the Duangong era, their rent and taxes have been exempted, but the barbarians have resumed levying them.
The imperial court feared that the people might become extroverted, so it again required them to pay annual tributes of horse stakes, fire cattle, and grass to keep them under its control. Hence, it became known as the "Two Subordinates." During the Huangyou period, Song Shouyue proposed that households belonging to the "Two Subordinates" be prohibited from marrying into the northern border, and the emperor accepted his proposal.
During the Jiayou period, officials reported that many of the people under Xiongzhou were two-member households, and requested that they all be dismissed. The court, fearing this would be a sign of disapproval, waited until they were old and near death before replacing them with people from the whole south. At the beginning of the Xining period, during the famine, officials again requested that two-member households be banned from collecting firewood south of Xiongzhou, but the emperor refused to listen.
The captives were assassinated for their bravery, and many of them escaped. We have continued to provide them with generous care and protection, indicating that both families have enjoyed the country's great grace for many years. Now, suddenly forbidding them from intermarriage is deeply fearful of discouraging their long-accumulated desire to be civilized and causing them to turn against the country. This is not a good idea. I hereby decree that all intermarriages are prohibited and that the order should not be carried out.
They are all located south of the Juma River and are under the jurisdiction of this dynasty. Since the beginning of the Duangong era, their rent and taxes have been exempted, but the barbarians have resumed levying them. Fearing their inclination to relocate abroad, the imperial court has imposed annual tributes of horse stumps, fire cattle, and grass as a form of tributary rule. Hence the term "two tributaries" (liang zhu).
Zhao Pu, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Court, Grand Protector, and founding Duke of Tianshui, was a founding minister of the state, a great talent who rose to prominence early in his career and transformed the political order. Xiao He's unified principles were enshrined in the imperial court, while ministers of the old school, Gan Pan, were relegated to the ranks.
I have been seeking wise counselors, reflecting on the wisdom of nature, and consulting the Yuangui. I have carefully selected the most capable and virtuous women, employing those with great virtue to guide me. Externally, I have been pacifying the barbarians; internally, I have been governing the people. To facilitate the well-being of the people, I have considered the advice of the boatmen; I have evaluated the talents of the people, so that they can be used appropriately.
With few ignorant people around, we will achieve peace and order, and not let Bing, Wei, Fang, and Du be the only ones who enjoyed glory in previous dynasties. He can be appointed as Minister of Education, concurrently Minister of the Interior, and Grand Secretary of the Zhaowen Academy.
Renowned Taiwanese scholar Bo Yang once said, "In the thousands of years of Chinese history, only five people have been qualified to be called great emperors: Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han, Fu Jian, the Former Qin Emperor, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, and Emperor Kangxi."
"Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of the Xiongnu" states: The Xiongnu's Left Grand Commandant wanted to kill Er Chanyu and sent people to announce his surrender to the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty then ordered General Yingan Gongsun Ao to build a city to receive the surrender. The following year, the Han Dynasty sent Zhao Po Nu, Marquis of Xuye, with a group of more than 20,000 cavalrymen to march more than 2,000 miles northwest of Shuofang.
The Chanyu discovered the Left Grand Commandant's plot and killed him. He then sent his troops to attack Zhao and defeat the Xiongnu. After defeating the Xiongnu, they returned and "before they reached the city of Shoujiang, 400 miles away, the Xiongnu troops surrounded them from all directions..."
The army was eventually defeated by the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu Chanyu was overjoyed and sent a special force to attack Shousuang City, but he was unable to capture it. The invaders then crossed into the border and fled. The next year, the Chanyu planned to attack Shousuang City himself, but died of illness before he could reach it.
The Book of Han, Biography of the Xiongnu, states: In the third year of Ganlu (51 BC), Huhanye Chanyu surrendered to the Han Dynasty and came to the court, "requesting to stay at Guanglu Pass and urgently protect the surrendered city." The Han army was dispatched to escort him out of Jilu Pass.
The gene marker M168 originated 60,000 years ago, before humans left Africa. All non-Africans outside of Africa carry M168.
The Homo erectus that left Africa earlier did not have this marker, and their descendants who arrived in China would not have had this marker either. If the Chinese carry M168 in their genes, it would prove that modern Chinese people did not evolve from the Homo erectus in Zhoukoudian.
Every Chinese male's Y chromosome carries M168, pointing to an African ancestor 50,000 years ago. Not a single sample suggests that the Chinese evolved from the Zhoukoudian Homo erectus. All samples indicate that the Chinese are descendants of modern Homo sapiens, who left Africa 60,000 years ago.
The shovel-shaped incisors are the result of convergent evolution, and the shovel-shaped incisors of modern East Asians are obviously different from those of Homo erectus.
This is all based on blind guessing. Song Renzong originally supported Fan Zhongyan's Qingli New Deal. Why did he suddenly stop supporting it? Fan Zhongyan's cleaning up of excess personnel eased Song Renzong's financial pressure.
Of course he supported it, but this support only lasted for a year because Song Renzong discovered a problem. Those who considered themselves to be upright gentlemen gathered around Fan Zhongyan and formed a clique. In Song Renzong's eyes, a clique of good people was far more terrifying than a clique of bad people, and these upright people would have ideals when they formed a clique.
Renzong once asked Zhang Shixun if both gentlemen and villains formed cliques. In the fourth year of the Qingli reign, Renzong raised the question again in front of Fan Zhongyan, asking if villains formed cliques, but did gentlemen also form cliques?
The emperor was afraid that his ministers would form cliques and pose a threat to him. Unfortunately, Fan Zhongyan's answer disappointed Song Renzong. Fan Zhongyan said that he was warlike when he was sick at the border.
The Donglin Party existed as early as the Northern Song Dynasty. The Donglin Academy was founded by Yang Shi in 1111 AD. The actual controllers of the Donglin Academy were the Zhejiang East Group and the Xijing Luoyang Group. Starting in the Song Dynasty, a relatively secretive class emerged in the Jiangnan region. This class, characterized by relatively small families, essentially controlled the imperial examinations. Their expertise allowed them to quickly infiltrate management and seize control of the government as long as the examination system existed.
This group entered the government as officials and returned to their hometowns as gentry. Some served as officials, some taught, and some engaged in business. They were closely connected and formed an unbreakable alliance of interests through bribery, power-for-money transactions, and power-for-power transactions. Through the development of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, by the late Ming Dynasty, primitive capital accumulation had been completed and the stage of political capitalization was about to be entered, which is often referred to as the embryonic stage of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty.
The implementation of the imperial examination system after the Tang Dynasty weakened the aristocratic families in a sense and freed up the gentry and scholars. However, the gentry and scholars party was actually even more unruly than the aristocratic families (the gentry were actually small clans). The aristocratic families were shareholders and at least had their own sense of honor. These gentry and scholars were the stewards and CEOs. They exploited the people for their own interests and were even more ruthless than the aristocratic families. They formed cliques and conspired to control the historians. They had a very poor sense of family and country. As long as it did not affect their own interests, anyone could be emperor.
The imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty included many subjects such as Xiucai, Mingjing, Junshi, Jinshi, Mingfa (law), Mingzi, Mingsuan (mathematics), Yishi, Sanshi (history), Kaiyuanli, and Daoju. Later, the Jinshi officials in the imperial examinations formed cliques and became powerful, squeezing out talents from other channels and monopolizing the channels for becoming officials. The powerful people in the south of the Yangtze River even manipulated the imperial examinations to cultivate spokespersons for their interests.
The imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty also accounted for a small proportion of the total number of candidates, but they were mostly practical, rather than the theoretical poetry and song writing of later generations. Therefore, talents like Zhang Xun could pass the examinations and eventually seize the opportunity to leave their names in history. However, a talent like Zhang Xun, known for his military strategy, would never have been able to succeed under the Song and Ming dynasties.
Was it a small percentage, mainly ordinary landlords, who couldn't pass the exams like those from aristocratic families? It wasn't just an ordinary elementary school? It was comparable to a nationally recognized key elementary school. To put it bluntly, they couldn't get in. So, they fell back on the old ways of rising from humble beginnings? Relying on military merit, that is, slowly rising through the ranks as military commanders. Since they couldn't pass the civil service exams, they had no choice but to pursue military careers. So, at the time, people basically bought a few military books and tried their best. Could they succeed?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
